Fall Museum Exhibits to Put On Your Calendar Now

This fall brings a wide range of exhibits at top museums around the world, catering to everyone from aficionados of ancient Pompeii to fans of contemporary art. Here are some of our favorites.

Mickalene Thomas: Origin of the Universe

The first solo museum exhibition by Brooklyn-based, African-American artist Mickalene Thomas features 90 works, including her signature, collage-inspired paintings embellished with rhinestones; installations of furnished domestic interiors; and a film about her mother.

Becoming Van Gogh

This exhibit—which will be mounted only in Denver—features more than 70 paintings and drawings by the Dutch master and explores his evolution as an artist; other highlights include works by artists to whom Van Gogh responded, including Pissarro and Toulouse-Lautrec.

Picasso Black and White

This exhibit will look at Picasso's ongoing use of a black and white palette, illustrating this through 118 paintings, sculptures, and works on paper, from his early blue and rose periods through canvases painted in his final years.

Ai Weiwei: According to What?

This will be the first North American survey of Ai Weiwei, the controversial contemporary Chinese artist (and one of our 2012 Visionaries) who looks at the interrelations between art, society and individual experience—and protests China's authoritarian regime through his artwork. It will feature sculpture, photography, installation, video and audio work.

From top to bottom: Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn, 1995/2009; Colored Vases, 2007-2010.

Installation view of Ai Weiwei: According to What? at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C., 2012.

Ai Weiwei: According to What?

Installation view of Ai Weiwei: According to What? at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C., 2012.

Photo: Cathy Carver

Drawing Surrealism

Delving into the impact of surrealist drawing globally, this exhibit will feature works by well-known European Surrealists Dalí, Miró, Masson and Ernst, as well as works by artists from Eastern Europe, Great Britain, North and South America, and Japan.

Marilyn Monroe: A British Love Affair

Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of Monroe's death, the exhibit contains photographs and magazine covers from 1947 to 1962, including photos by Cecil Beaton and a photo of British pop artist Pauline Boty in front of one of her paintings of Monroe.

Marilyn Monroe: A British Love Affair

Marilyn Monroe, artwork for The Prince and The Showgirl poster, courtesy The John Kobal Foundation.

Marilyn Monroe: A British Love Affair

Roy Ward Baker and Marilyn Monroe on the set of Don’t Bother to Knock, 1952. Private collection of Nicholas Baker.

Shipwreck! Winslow Homer and ‘The Life Line'

The centerpiece of this exhibit is Homer’s 1884 masterpiece, "The Life Line," using it as a jumping-off point to consider his earlier works depicting suspense and rescue, as well as later works exploring struggle, anxiety, and tragedy.